To the President of Congress

I have the honour to inclose Copy of a Letter to the Comte de Vergennes and of certain
Articles and their Answers.2

The British Court proposed to the Imperial Courts a Congress upon two preliminary
Conditions, the Rupture of the Treaty with France, and the Return of America to their
Obedience. The two Imperial Courts have since proposed the inclosed Articles. Spain
and France have prepared their Answers. England has not answered yet,3 and no Ministers are yet commissioned or appointed by any Power. If She accepts the
terms, I should not scruple to accept them too, excepting the Armistice and Statu
quo: but I mean I should not insist upon a previous explicit Acknowledgment of the
Sovereignty of the United States, before I went to Vienna. I see nothing inconsistent
with the Character or Dignity of the United States, in their Minister going to Vienna
at the same time4 when Ministers from the other Powers are there, and entering into Treaty with a British
Minister, without any Acknowledgment explicitly of our Independence before the Conclusion
of the Treaty. The very Existence of such a Congress would be of use to our Reputation:
but I cannot yet believe that Britain will wave her Preliminaries. She will still
insist upon the Dissolution of the Treaty, and upon the Return of the Americans under
their Government. This however will do no honor to her Moderation and pacific sentiments,
in the opinion of the Powers of Europe.

Something may grow out of these Negotiations in time; but it will probably be several
Years before any thing can be done. Americans only can quicken these Negotiations
by decisive strokes. No depredations upon their trade, no conquests of their possessions
in the East or West Indies will have any effect upon the English to induce them to
make Peace, while they see they have an Army in the United States, and can flatter
themselves with the hope of conquering or regaining America; because they think that
with America under their Government, they can easily regain whatever they may lose
now in any part of the World.

Whereas the total Expulsion or Captivity of their Forces in the United States would
extinguish their hopes, and persuade them to Peace, sooner than the loss of every
thing else. The belligerent Powers { 420 } and the Neutral Powers may flatter themselves with the hopes of a Restoration of Peace,
but they will all be disappointed, while the English have a Soldier in America. It
is amazing to me that France and Spain do not see it, and direct their forces accordingly.

I have the honor to be, with the greatest Respect, Sir, your most obedient and most
humble Servant.

2. See JA's letter of 13 July to Vergennes, above. The enclosures, however, have not been found with this letter
in the PCC.

3. Unknown to JA, Britain had rejected the Austro-Russian proposals on 15 June. In its response to
the mediation proposals, the British government declared that “on every occasion since
the commencement of the war with France whenever there has been a question of negotiation,
the King has constantly declared that he could never admit in any manner, nor under
any form whatsoever, any interference between foreign powers and his rebellious subjects.”
Moreover, “the King would derogate from his rights of Sovereignty should he in any
wise consent to admit to his Congress any person whatever delegated by his rebellious
subjects, this admission being absolutely incompatible with their quality of subjects.
For this same reason, the conciliatory measures employed to put an end to the rebellion
ought not to be intermixed either in their commencement, or conclusion, with a negotiation
between sovereign states” (PCC, No. 59, II, f. 205–209).